Boulder County businesses close, schools see attendance drop on 'A Day Without Immigrants'

By Amelia Arvesen

Staff Writer

Posted:
02/16/2017 10:49:17 AM MST

Guacamole s at 827 Ken Pratt Blvd. in Longmont is closed today in support of "A Day Without Immigrants." (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

Across Boulder County, some restaurants and other businesses closed Thursday or allowed employees to stay home in solidarity with a nationwide strike designed to emphasize the importance of immigrants, while the Boulder Valley School District reported a decrease in attendance.

The "A Day Without Immigrants" movement comes in response to President Donald Trump's stance on immigration, including his pledges to increase deportation, construct a wall along the Mexican border and ban people from certain majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Guacamole s at 827 Ken Pratt Blvd. in Longmont is closed today in support of "A Day Without Immigrants." (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

BVSD also alerted parents that there was no truth to the rumor that some school administrators were advising immigrant students to stay home.

Boulder Valley Superintendent Bruce Messinger said Thursday that absentee numbers in some schools were higher than normal. He said the average district-wide attendance rate per day through this year is 95.47 percent, and the average attendance district-wide Thursday was 90.51 percent.

"I think we could comfortably say that it's associated with students and families choosing not to be in schools today," he said, though noting he hadn't looked over the reason for every excused absence.

Messinger said the level of staff absentees district-wide Thursday was within the normal range. He said he expected student attendance to be back to normal today.

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The St. Vrain Valley School District did not responded to inquiries about whether its schools saw lower attendance rates Thursday.

University of Colorado spokeswoman Deborah Mendez Wilson said the school didn't see an impact on campus operations, and continued to provide basic services to faculty, staff and students.

"We play a dual role as both a university and an employer, and understand that immigration is an issue of increasing importance to students, faculty and staff on many levels," she said in an emailed statement. "We know of one report of about 20 employees who have taken today off as part of the 'Day Without an Immigrant' protest, but we can't say with certainty how many other employees may have taken today off in a sign of protest or solidarity. We have more than 8,000 employees."

Boulder County businesses

In Longmont, Guacamole's at 827 Ken Pratt Blvd. closed after employees asked for the day off, the owner's wife confirmed.

El Comite Executive Director Marta Moreno said the Longmont organization would stay open to respond to anyone needing a place to go. She said she told business owners and employees it was their choice whether to be out in public Thursday or not.

"I'm here to back up whatever might happen, might not happen," she said.

In Boulder, the Dagabi Cucina and Murphy's restaurants were similarly closed Thursday in support of "A Day Without Immigrants."

"Due to the organized employee walkout named 'Day Without Immigrants,' we will not be able to properly staff the restaurant," Murphy's posted on Facebook. "In speaking with our employees, we have realized how important this event is to them, know how important they are to us and support their right to protest."

Doug van Riper, who co-owns the two restaurants in Boulder and one in Louisville with Stephan Frye, said employees approached them earlier in the week notifying them of the national day. He said if it's important to them, then it's important to him.

"Our kitchens are largely immigrant and it's important to note that they're documented, here legally," he said. "Because I think that's come up a few times. It's not illegal immigrants."

He said feedback on social media has been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing that they made the right choice.

The McDonald's at 2920 Baseline Road in Boulder was also closed Thursday, though it is unclear whether it was connected to the movement.

Boulder Organic Foods did not shut down Thursday, but did give everyone the opportunity to take off of work if they chose in support of an immigration policy that works, company CEO Greg Powers aid.

"Like a lot of companies in the area and around the country, we depend on variety sources of labor, one of which includes an immigrant community," he said. He added, they're "integral to the production process that we use to produce our food products."

He said the day off was open to more than 80 employees in the front office, production and warehouse, whether they're immigrants or not.

Boulder-based Avalanche Commercial Cleaning, which serves about 200 clients across the county, had between 70 percent and 90 percent fewer staff Thursday, owner Markus Taekla estimated.

He said he allowed more than 80 employees, who are mostly immigrants, to take the day off if they chose out of protest of the "fear-based" immigration policies.

"They are my business," he said. "They're important people and it's all about the people."

Taekla said he understands the call to deport convicted felons who are immigrants, but the others "are people that have family and they are family."

"They're hard, hardworking people and it is incredible what they do from day to day," he said.

'We are here'

Among those workers who stayed home was Rosa Estrada, an operations manager for the cleaning company. She said she saw Thursday not as a protest, but as a way for people from different countries uniting to say, "We are here, we are staying and we contribute to this community and country just like everybody else."

Estrada said she told her boss, Taekla, that she didn't want to work because she wanted to take a stand.

"I hope the impact is that people in power realize the immigrants are an important part of the community and to just decide that part of the community should go somewhere else is going to affect everybody," she said.

Estrada said she is a first-generation legal immigrant whose family is originally from Mexico, and she has lived in Boulder for 20 years. She said she spent the day with her puppies, husband and 17-year-old daughter, who she said shared great ideas in their conversation about their history and how immigrant families can influence change.

"I believe that we take things and people for granted and once that people or things are gone, it's like the best way to realize how important these things are for people," she said.

A man who asked to be identified as J.M. is surprised as he reads the closure sign on the Baseline Road McDonald s in Boulder on Thursday afternoon. It was unclear if the store were closed because of the A Day Without Immigrants strike. (Paul Aiken/Staff Photographer)

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